Corkscrews are available in many different varieties, both manual and electric. Conventional manual corkscrews, while inexpensive to manufacture, are often difficult to insert into the cork, difficult to manipulate and often damage the cork as it is extracted from the bottle.
Automatic corkscrews generally are easier to operate. Such corkscrews generally comprise a motor driven auger. The auger is rotated into the cork and as the auger continues to rotate, the cork is pulled upwardly for extraction. Examples of such devices are described U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,079,975 and 5,095,778. Although such devices can extract a cork from a bottle, the devices do not stand in an upright position very well. To prevent such devices from rolling off the edge of a bar or counter surface, these devices are likely to be placed in a drawer out of sight. This feature detracts from the corkscrew's attractiveness as a gift item and ultimately it's marketability.
In order to remove a cork from a bottle, the sealing label which cover the cork and bottleneck of unopened bottles must be removed. Some corkscrews provide a small knife to cut the sealing label. The knife is used to cut the sealing label off the bottle, allowing access to the cork for extracting the cork from the bottle. Otherwise, the tip of the corkscrew must be used to cut the label, which is sometimes difficult to accomplish.
Automatic corkscrews, such as those described in the above-mentioned U.S. patents, do not include a mechanism for cutting the sealing label from the bottle prior to extracting the cork. Such devices require a separate cutting device. The user must therefore have a knife handy to remove the sealing label.